No Love Lost This Valentine's Day as Pack Takes on Jackets

NC STATE WOLFPACK vs. GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS

Game Time: 1:30pm
Location: Atlanta, GA
Television: Raycom


This Valentine's while people everywhere are expressing their love, the Pack is looking to pillage and punish a Georgia Tech foe that Sidney Lowe has yet to beat down in the Thriller Arena. However, the circumstances this year are a bit different than years past. Georgia Tech currently sits at 1-9 in the ACC, and is riding an embarrassing 3 game losing streak. The Pack on the other hand, is coming off their best win of the season against #7 Wake Forest.
State has now shown in 2 consecutive games the ability to utterly dominate opponents, building leads of up to 20. On the other hand they've also shown in 2 consecutive games the ability to utterly fall apart and give back 20 points in less than 6 minutes. So who is this Wolfpack team you ask? It's looking more and more like it's going to be a team peaking at just the right time. Last Wednesday's game against Wake showed signs of toughness as a 20 point lead vanished, yet the Pack refused to fold. This weekend they will take on an opponent who they've already defeated once, albeit with an overtime at home, in the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. In the last meeting it was the Jacket's guards who gave State fits, but that was also when Courtney Fells was in the midst of nursing a bum ankle. This past week we saw a healthy and motivated Fells, who's "this is it, I'm a senior" mentality seems to be kicking into full force, take Jeff Teague completely out of his game. This week it will be vital for Fells, Degand, and Javi to keep GT's guards out of the paint because they like to penetrate and reek havoc inside.

The keys to today's game is again the point guard play, defense, and rebounding. The Pack owned the boards against a more athletic Wake team, and they will need an effort like that again if they hope to knock off the "nothing to lose" Yellow Jackets. If Degand and Javi can handle the GT pressure and can execute without turning the ball over this could be a big road win that the Wolfpack desperately need. If the Pack can pressure Clinch and Shumpert they should be able to turn them over pretty easily as GT leads the ACC with over 17 turnovers per game.

A win against GT would put the Pack at 4-6, inching ever closer to that middle tier cluster we need to be involved in. With UNC up this Wednesday and Virginia to follow, this win is crucial for State's post season dreams.